If I wasn't living in Italy, I would have no more problems with Russian sellers than with any other sellers.
But our customs are a disaster for imports from outside E.U., except USA.
USA imports are handled fast, but imports from Russia and Asia are a disaster. My Volna-9 took almost 3 months to be delivered from the customs. And if you go to the Italian Ebay Forum, you can read stories of persons who had to wait up to 5-6 months, and who received stellar customs duties to pay, because the customs office did not believe the customs documents that came with the objects, and assumed prices that were much higher.
In these cases there is not much that you can do, either you pay what the customs office asks, or you give up the objects, that are returned._________________Orio, AdministratorT*NE CEDE MALIS AUDENTIOR ITO